Everybody is wrong about the Orlando mass murderer. The Orlando shooting was an honor crime and not Islamic ISIS terrorism at all…just as I said the day it happened. And it wasn’t a hate crime against gays either. The shooter loved gays. He was one himself. That’s where the investigation has led. The police, his family, Trump, Obama and everybody wants it to be terrorism or a hate crime. It was neither. It’s actually stranger than that.

The murderer’s ex-wife says he was gay and was desperate about his father’s and family’s honor. It was an “honor killing” to prove to his father and everyone (+ himself?) that he was not gay….and of course he was seriously mentally ill, deteriorating over a long time. He was a really sick weirdo; extremely conflicted on many levels.

He frequented the gay club for years and had no need to case the joint. It was a 2hr drive from his home cuz it was his secret. He never went to gay clubs nearer his home. He didn’t own a gun until a few weeks ago. Perhaps the first few people he killed (and then tried to leave the club*) were “acquaintances” or there was some personal insult or heartbreak involved?

He tried to falsify a reputation (on-line and at work) as an Islamic warrior when in fact he didn’t know anything about it. The FBI who are pretty serious and savvy when interviewing people, laughed him off thru 3 interviews cuz they knew more about Islamic Jihad than he did. He told fellow workers he knew various notorious terrorists and was as a member of Hezbollah and Islamic State (who are blood enemies). He told the FBI he made it all up and indeed he did. The FBI knows when somebody’s lying or is a bad guy and he got a pass, though he was on a watch-list as countless other Muslims in the USA are. The FBI puts everybody they talk to on a list. He was harmless…at the time. He had no thought of killing anybody…at the time. That occurred to him rather recently.

He was not politically active, didn’t have any connections to anybody with Jihad, no participation, trips to the ME, manifesto, training, last words or FB page etc…It seemed like he just maybe read up on it and looked at the pictures…perhaps to make it appear he was involved. I wonder if the the cops know how much time he spent on Jihad websites compared to gay sites which they’ve mentioned he also visited?

Among other things the call at 2AM claiming he was Islamic State was an afterthought which should never have even happened. He shot a few people and then attempted to flee the club but was driven back inside by police gunfire. He didn’t think about making any of those phone calls until he was trapped in a hostage situation and talking with the police as he had never intended. He knew he was probably gonna die and took the opportunity to announce to Daddy and the world that he was an Islamic warrior who presumably hated gays; rather than one himself. His father, who said shortly after the killings “no way was he was Islamic Jihad.”, added that “he had recently expressed extreme anger towards two gay men he saw kissing in Miami which may have motivated him.” Dad fell for it all lock stock and barrel.

That all said it may be that he sincerely tried hard to be a devout fundamentalist Muslim and actually grew to believe homosexuality is a sin. But the conflict was just too great and he couldn’t live with it any longer.

This will go down as the largest mass shooting but it may go down also as the strangest, by one of the creepiest people for unimaginable reasons.

It’s worth noting that Islamic terrorists and hate crimers do not usually target people they know. That’s what makes it terrorism. Neither do lunatic shooters. And terrorists always leave some evidence or oodles of pretty intense extremism.

Angry people shoot people they know, shoot their families, co-workers etc. San Bernardino was a workplace shooting perhaps agitated by Jihad. They too shot people they knew. I think they were angry at their victims for reasons other than Islam.

* The police in the heat of the moment made a critical error when the shooter tried to exit the club. He evidently shot a few people and left. As he reached the exit he was met by police gunfire and driven back inside where over the next 2+hrs he shot a 100 more people. The cops should have let him clear the building where gunfire could only harm them or him. But like I say the heat of the moment.

P.S.: It’s also beginning to look like knee-Jerk-Trump was wrong again with his assessment 10 minutes after the shooting. Not to mention the killer was 100% homegrown all-American and not an immigrant or a Muslim terrorist.

20yrs ago I asked my father :“Who was your hero?” He answered “Muhammad Ali”. I could not have agreed more. I listened to Ali’s 1st fight against Liston on the radio with my grandfather. Nobody thought he had a chance and he made it big….in their face….and changed his name from Cassius Clay and his religion. Then he told them they could take their war and their money and put I where the sun don’t shine. All of which was followed by epic glory in sport and humanity. So I wrote this song about him yesterday.

This is the kind of beautiful thing that happens to me on this magical journey I’ve been on for some years now.

The picture at the left is composed entirely from grains of rice. The artist copied the image from my business card, which itself is a cut from the video of my song Vagabond which was created by my friend Sage Greco, who is actually the strolling actor carrying the guitar and dancing in the video and graphic.

I play at the Island Bar https://www.facebook.com/pages/Island-Bar a couple of nights a week. The Island Bar is an open-air restaurant/bar located at the Night Market in Siem Reap where dozens of Khmer vendors ply their trades and wares.

Nearby the bar, from where evidently my performance can be heard quite well, is the young lady who does this incredible rice art, some of which you can see in the photo behind her and I; stunning detailed stuff like peacocks, movie stars and her specialty full-size portraits done from personal photographs.

On a break from singing, a week or so ago, I wandered near her concession and she announced that she was going to make and gift a picture to me. I couldn’t imagine what it would be, not considering I had left my business card with her. Last night she gave me this panel absolutely refusing any payment. (If you knew how poor these people are!) I will give her my Vagabond CD in return.

I am urged by some who know me to begin writing some kind of journal blog about my “incredibly interesting life”. I am a little embarrassed and humbled by the thought that there’s anything that special about it that would be of interest to anyone. But I have been convinced because last night I made a personal discovery.

I’m not like everybody else.

My TV was buzzing in the background as usual and one of History(?)Channel’s auto-repair shows came on; an entertainment concept I cannot grasp. A 30ish man was waxing romantic about this old car he’d owned a long time and was going to restore. And I realized that I have never, that I can think of, had such a sentimental passionate attachment to any material thing. I am totally not materialistic as anybody I know. My most valued possession at present is my acoustic guitar with which I make my way and life. And even that I think of as a tool.

I never try to save money. I am nearly as broke today as the day I took my first breath. I’ve lived in what most people would call poverty most of my life. I have never been able to get a wink of sleep in a luxury hotel room or yacht. Like the Count of Monte Cristo I am accustomed to sleeping on the floor so to speak.

“If you do what you love for a living you’ll never work a day in your life.”, no one knows who, once said.

The key here, for me at least, is “for a living”. I have been a professional surviving solo singer songwriter musician for a long time now. I love it! And I’ve never worked a day in my life. In fact us entertainers actually call our job “playing”. We play music. I have a great time at it most every day.

I never made a million but if I had a $ for every time somebody said “I’d pay a $million if I could do what you do.”….I’d be close.

It’s the high tourist season where I am and I “work” virtually every night at various venues including some 5-star resorts and hotels. I meet dozens of people from around the world daily; interesting, curious often pretty amazing traveling people including fantastic musicians like Lance Harrison, Misha and Mark White…. and people like Alexandra and Thomas whom I met last night they on their honeymoon.

That old cliché refers to the Pastor saving people who are already going to heaven and singing the Lord’s praises, up there in the choir 15 feet closer to God than the rest of us. He’s not saving any lost souls or changing anybody’s mind screaming brimstone and hell-fire to them.

I propose to preach here and now to those people who are “on the fence” about restricting unfettered gun possession, availability, armed crazy people etc. and doing something about the decades-long epidemic of gun murder in the United States with 467,000+ gun deaths since Bush invaded Afghanistan in 2001.You “fence-sitters” in effect are on the side of those who oppose even a whiff of gun control or any measure to stop the horrendous flow of blood. Doing nothing is exactly what the NRA and other intere$ted parties are about. On the fence = Doing nothing.You are with those who feel 30,000+ US citizens shot to death every year is acceptable.

This frightening image is real. I hope you are shocked. It’s not Hollywood. I could post hundreds even more unsettling. This is what guns do. Now imagine twenty 1st-graders, some shot as many as 16 times with a high-powered assault rifle and you begin to get the picture. But you needn’t imagine it. The government has all the real pictures, from school floors-autopsies-surgeries- resultant permanent scars and wounds etc… I contend that if the government, law enforcement and media broadcast and published every video and picture of every shooting crime scene, right on TV, the Net and newspapers the “gun debate” would take a big turn…. in 45 minutes.

Future House Speaker RepubliKlan Kevin McCarthy said, and I quote:……. “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee….a Select Committee…what are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.”…… This incredible admission was braggadocio not a gaffe.

What are the top 5 problems menacing mankind today?My opinion.#1: Child abuse and neglect.*#2: 2.2 Billion people do not have safe water to drink.#3: 1.7 Billion live and die on a calorie-deficient(starvation)diet.#4 Alcoholism#5 War

I have always loved this picture. To me it is so gripping as to almost be alive. The painting may not be all that sensational to your eye, but the story that forever attached me to it and how it came into my hands is a fascinating and strange tale indeed.

The Belichick/Brady Patriots are by far, the best team ever in the NFL if such a comparison can be made. No other team comes close….12 Division titles….9 AFC Title games….. 6 Super Bowls…. 4 Championships…..1 Undefeated season. Montana, Bradshaw, Aikman-era teams don’t have 1/2 those stats…… Belichick is the intellectual master coach of the game and the biggest reason the Patriots beat the Ravens & Seahawks last season. His brilliant legal alignment vs the Ravens not only resulted in Patriots scores but actually gained 15yds on the field from Harbaugh’s unsportsman-like penalty….In the Super Bowl, Carroll (on game-time video) says “He’s got the run covered”. “He” is Belichick, who had also pounded the pass play Pete called into his defense’s heads all week. Butler who intercepted “the pass” said “I saw it all the way.”